Rest in Peace
by lost-katana
Summary: Everything gone, Leo has one last thing to do. Sorry! Bad Summary! Oneshot. Warning: Character Deaths [Won Second Place for Best TearJerker, Best Sad Ending, and Thrid Place for Best Leonardo Scene in the 2005 FanFic Competition]


Guys, this is my one-shot that I'm almost positive everyone will hate me for. And if you don't, I'm sure I will be receiving notes in my reviews telling me, once again, to think better of myself.

Now let me tell you _why _you're gonna hate me. About ninety percent of my one-shots will be very, _very_, sad. If they're not tragedies, they'll probably be fillers.

Anyways, here, Leo is about seventeen. This account is basically what happened because of the events of the two years past.

And since this is such a sad story, I suggest that you don't read it if you don't like seeing the turtles being killed-off. _I _hate that, so I myself am shocked that I wrote this. (crying) I'm a hypocrite!

But I do really hope you'll give it a chance… (sniffs) even if everybody dies. It is good and I'm quite proud of it.

So, now that I've officially warned you, begged you, and belittled myself, I can start the story.

Oh yeah. Italics are, as usual, thoughts and flashbacks.

Disclaimer: The only way I can ever own the TMNT is if I got the right kind of lawyers, and I don't have the money for that.

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A drop of blood trickled down his cheek, meeting a bead of sweat on its way down. The two blended together, then sat for a time on the edge of his chin, contemplating its next move, before making a suicidal drop to the earth.

There were numerous gashes across Leonardo's body, ranging from the small scratch on his hand to the bleeding wound on the side of his head. But it was the cut in his side that would be the end of him, he knew. If he were to evade the Foot tonight, it would be the thing that killed him.

On his way out of the Shredder's fortress, he'd met a certain Foot ninja with a sword. It had been plunged deep into his side. He should have already been dead by now. But he had something to do.

By now, Leo's blood had covered most of his lower body. As he ran, his feet made crimson footprints in the earth. They'd be easy to follow. Even the stupidest Foot ninja couldn't mistake a two-toed, bloody footprint to be made by a normal person.

Leo stopped, panting for breath in a cemetery. His hand had instinctively applied pressure to his wound, in an effort to stop the bleeding, while he turned to look behind him. He blinked through the pain to see who was coming to him. _The Foot Elite._ No regular Foot ninja would be coming after him tonight. The Elite would, of course, be planning on avenging their master personally.

The blue-banded turtle turned his head back, ignoring the pain that came from the minor cut in his neck. For a moment, his breath stopped as he took a look upon the two joined gravestones that lay before him.

Leo looked at them sadly. _Casey and April_.

"I did it guys. I got him." There was so much more he wanted to say.

But he had to get to them. And the Elite were coming.

So, Leo started off again, running on a broken ankle through the land of the dead.

Eventually he got to his destination. There was an expanse of rocks near one side of the East River. A fall through them could kill a person. Leo and his brothers had come across it one day, not to long after the Shredder had murdered their Sensei.

In the middle of the rock pile, there was a small opening. Upon going through it, it sent you plummeting a few feet to a small cave that lay open to the river. They'd been surprised to see that no one had found it before.

The pain from Leo's wounds seemed to protest all at once as he made his way down the steep, rocky slope. The rough edges of the stones he climbed down opened up the smaller cuts in his feet and legs.

And there it was. Where it always had been day after day since his daily journey to this place. Leonardo threw himself through the opening, falling down to the earth.

As he pushed himself up in agony, his fingers dug at the dirt beneath him. The dirt that covered all he had lost in the past two years.

Now on his feet, Leo made his eyes look away from his blood that had stained the earth and up to four sticks, wedged vertically in the ground. Each one bore a name.

Leo walked over to the markers, his pain eating away at his very soul. He gasped from the physical sting as tears slowly started to fall from the mental torture.

Death could do a number on a turtle's mind in only a span of two years.

He let a green and bloody hand rest on the top of the first stick. _Splinter. _

This had all started the night their father died. Once again, they'd been trying to defeat the Shredder. However, this time they didn't 'kill' him, only to fight him again someday. _This_ time, Oroku Saki was victorious with his finishing blow to the rat's chest.

_The two metallic spikes were pulled from their master's chest, which had started to convulse. _

_Shredder grinned at them. "I've finished you." With a laugh, he continued, "With one kill, I have finished your entire family. It's crumbling here, before me now." He raised his head, then walked away. "You will do the rest yourselves. And I will be watching."_

Master Splinter was dead within the hour. Leo hadn't realized, then, how true those words would be.

It had taken everything Leo had to keep his family together. But he'd managed. In six months, things had finally started to turn back to normal. But things _never_ stayed normal.

Raph and Casey had been out bashing heads that night, doing their part to keep the city safe in the most violent way they could think of. Then, they ran into the Foot. Two against twenty had never been very good odds.

In the course of the battle, both of their shell-cells had been destroyed, so they couldn't call for help. For over an hour they fought, being worn down, until one Foot ninja hit Casey over the head with a bo staff, knocking him out. Before Raph could get to him, another Foot ninja plunged his sword into Casey's stomach. Raphael got away, carrying the body of his friend with him.

The brothers had watched his funeral, in the shadows, from two dead trees in the cemetery. April, of course, was able to actually attend it. The red-head sat up close to the coffin, near Casey's mother, weeping throughout the entire ceremony.

The two had been married for almost three weeks.

Leo closed his eyes tight, moving his hand over to the next stick. _Raphael_. The tears could not be stopped.

Leo hadn't been able to stop his brother that time. Despite his efforts, Leo had fallen asleep that night and had failed to catch his red-clad brother sneaking out of the lair. Revenge had been in his mind for some time now.

When Leo had woken up, finally getting to his brother, he was too late. He'd only arrived in time for the final blow of the fight.

After the Foot fled, Leo looked over his brother's broken body. He was still alive.

"_Did I get 'em?" It had been hard for Raph to talk._

_Leo had looked out amongst many of the corpses that lay around them. "Yeah, you got most of them."_

_Raphael looked sad as his eyes started to glaze over. "It ain't-" he coughed up a little blood, "It ain't gonna bring them back though, is it?"_

_If he hadn't been dying, Leo would've reminded him that he'd told him that for a while now. But Raph's blood was all over him and there was nothing he could do. So he just shook his head._

_He hadn't even known that he'd started to cry when he heard Raph's voice. "It ain't your fault, bro."_

_Leo had been shaking. It was his fault. He almost told Raph that, but his brother then gave a gasp. Instead, Leo told him that he loved him._

It was the last thing Raph had heard before he died in his elder brother's arms.

They'd buried him here, in the same place where they'd buried Splinter. It then officially became the burial grounds for the family.

Leo's feet moved over to the third stick and Leo placed his hand over it. _Michaelangelo._

Mikey never could take death well. After Raphael, he wasn't doing too good. His spirit gone, he became slow and withdrawn.

Four months later, it was the same. They'd been fighting the Purple Dragons when Hun had shown up with the Foot. Mikey didn't see he was behind him.

_A large fist collided into Michaelangelo from behind. Mikey gave a groan as he tried to push himself up. But by then, Hun had found a large, metal pipe. And he brought it down into Mikey's shell, cracking it._

_Donny had went to Mike, trying to help him, while all Leo could do was watch. He was too far away with one too many Foot ninja in his path. But he didn't miss the look of pride on Hun's face._

There was nothing Don could do. Mikey died, just like Splinter had; just like Raph had.

Life never was the same after that. Donny and Leo stayed silently in the lair for quite a few months, with April dropping by occasionally.

Then one day, she didn't come. The last time they saw her was on the news. She'd been killed in an apparent 'mugging'.

When the two remaining brothers spied on April's funeral from the same place they'd watched her husband's, they could see a small, Foot insignia had been traced into her neck.

Back at the lair, Leo and Don decided to try, just one more time, to get rid of the Shredder. Leo regretted that decision again as he placed his hand over the final marker. _Donatello. _

Before they'd been able to get into the Shredder's fortress, they were met with an army of Foot and Foot tech-ninja.

_They'd gotten separated. Leo had been led to a group of ninja with katanas. One cut deep into his shoulder. Leo turned his head, but couldn't see his purple-banded brother. _

_The fight had gone on for a few hours, drawing Leo closer to exhaustion. But that was immediately forgotten when he head Donny call out his name in misery._

_Leo had felt it in his voice. It was bad. The agony echoed around him as he fought off more of the Foot to get to his brother._

_He heard the Shredder. "Leave!" he'd ordered his soldiers. "All is done for the night."_

_When the Foot left, it was easier to find his brother. Leo had walked over slowly to him, before falling to his knees._

_Donny was already dead._

_Crying, Leo had lifted his head up, meeting the eyes of Oroku Saki. Hearing the sick laughter of his family's murderer break through the night. _

Leo buried the last member of his family by himself. Every thing he'd ever loved was gone now, in the course of seventeen months. All thanks to one person.

With the anger of Raphael, Leo spent the next three months planning the fall of the Shredder. It was the only thing he did for a long time.

Lowering his hand off of Don's grave marker, Leo took one step back, speaking to all of them, "I got him for you, guys. I killed him, I killed Hun, I killed everyone who got in the way."

His blood was starting to pool around his family's graves. And then he told them.

_Leo had made his way into the Shredder's building with fierce determination. He just walked right up to it. Several of the Foot came to fight him. Leo killed them all with quick slashes from his katanas._

_He made his way to the elevator. Anyone in his way met a swift death. Up he went to the final floor, to the Shredder._

_When the doors opened, he quickly made it to where Saki was, surrounded by his Elite ninja, Hun, and Karai. Stockman was separated a little bit away from them, but closer to the blue-clad turtle. Leo killed him before the scientist could say a word._

_Immediately, Shedder's small army was after him, with Karai hesitating just a little bit. The Elite were quick to slice his skin open, though Leo didn't care. All they were to him were annoying, deadly flies. Shredder was the only one he needed to kill. _

_They cut at his plastron while Hun tried to pound him into the ground. Karai made a few strikes, but she wasn't trying to kill him._

_Then, Hun turned around, being given an order from his master. Leo kicked his leg to the side, knocking an axe out of the hands of an Elite. Grabbing it, Leo threw it into Hun's spine. For a moment, the Elite stopped._

_By Hun's side, Leo watched the life drain out of him. They made eye contact. Leo bent down. "Mike wanted me to return the favor."_

_Then, they pounced again. Leo knocked out two of them. The other two, the one with the modified bo staff and the one with the swords, were still after him. It seemed as if Karai was making more trouble for Shredder at this point, rather than helping him. For that, Leo didn't kill her._

_Finally, he had made it up to where Saki stood, a touch of fear visible on his features. "Leonardo." He had said._

"_Shredder."_

_Shredder smiled. He hadn't been in his suit. "I see my words have caught up on you."_

_Leo nodded. "And you're going to pay for it."_

_He chuckled slightly. "And how do-"_

_Before he could finish his sentences, Leo's katana was forced into the mechanical skull, splitting the metal. "I'm here to finish you, Saki." He struck him again. "For every blow against my family, you will suffer twice."_

_Leo sliced at the protective metal suit, cutting it into pieces. The two Elite were up at their master's side at once, striking Leo over and over again. But he paid them no mind as he continued. Shredder cut into his neck and arms and head with the gauntlet on his arm, making countless, deadly wounds. He barely felt it. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he noted that Karai had left the room. _

_And then, finally, he found his opportunity. Shredder's middle was exposed. With the speed and ferocity of a tiger, Leo stabbed him through to the other side, piercing his utrom body. _

_The human form of the Shredder hit the ground with a thud. His Elite gathered around him as Leo walked out of the room._

_Outside, Leo heard a voice behind him. "So we are even, Leonardo?"_

"_Yes, Karai."_

_She stepped out of the shadows, one tear falling down her cheek. "An eye for an eye."_

Leo nodded. "To make the world blind." No one would ever know about his brothers. "You didn't try to stop me."

"_And I didn't try to help you, either. Your debts have been repaid, Leonardo. Now go."_

_And Leo left._

Leaning against the stone wall, Leo could hear the Foot Elite above him, searching for the one who'd slain their master.

He sighed. "There's nothing left now. I've missed you guys, but I didn't let you're deaths go without reason." His tears fell freely. "But Raph, it's like you said. It's not like it'll ever bring you back."

Leo walked up to the sticks. Someday, someone would find this cave. If there were markers there, they would dig up the graves. Leo wasn't going to let his family be dissected by scientists; their bones be put up for display in a museum.

He pulled them out. With a sigh, he spoke to the deceased. "Rest in peace. You deserve it."

Leo moved, though his body protested, the few steps to the mouth of the cave. There, the East River lay at his feet. Turning his head, he saw one of the Elite ninja staring at him. Leo nodded at him, then knelt down, putting the sticks in the water.

As he watched them drift away, Leo felt ready to give himself in. But he wouldn't do that. Not anyone of his friends or family had given up. Mikey, his spirit crushed, had even fought for life.

Leo turned to the Elite, who had been joined by his three companions. No matter what he did, he would die. But the facts didn't matter anymore.

He would fight, regardless. And he would die, regardless.

The Elite walked to him, malice and hatred burning in their eyes. Leo turned his head back to the graves before unsheathing his katanas. Then, as the ninjas charged, he whispered back to the spirits in the cave.

"See you soon."

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(crying) That's it. (sniffles) That's the end of the story. I can't believe I just wrote that!

I hope I never write a story like this again. I'll make myself cry! I actually _did_ start crying in the middle of this.

Now, before you all come to kill me, I'm going to go and curl up in a little ball on the floor, sucking my thumb. At least give me the time to scream at myself!

But remember, if ya kill me, you ain't gonna get to see what happens in the rest of my stories! Besides, now that I think about it, a lot of you guys have killed off the turtles, too.

(crying) But that don't make me feel any better!

Please review! And no flames, I beg you!


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